"I've got just the thing to stop you right in your tracks this time Sonic," a confident Eggman declared as the blue blur sped around the place.

"Oh really? What is it? Your worst, eggiest, bad breath?" Sonic answered, mocking the doctor. He loved dashing through this facility, smashing all of Eggman's robots, and now he was in the mad scientist's lab, blasting his way through all of the human's equipment.

"Far from it," Eggman scowled, as he pulled a ray gun from out of the cockpit of his grey Eggpod, "It's my greatest invention. The Egg-manipulator."

"What's it do, let you turn into an unborn chicken?" Sonic chuckled as he came in closer to Eggman's flying craft.

"Now!" Eggman grinned, flicking a switch on his device. Four walls sprung out of the ground, all around Sonic. They began drawing closer, "Looks like you've just walked right into my trap."

Sonic didn't respond. He watched the walls draw closer and closer. They inched towards him, giving him less and less room to run around in. The walls, all uniform in height were too high for Sonic to jump over, and Eggman was hovering too high for the hedgehog to use the Eggpod as a homing attack point. As the walls shrunk to a five foot box, Eggman started aiming his device at the hedgehog. Firing wildly, the beam struck the hedgehog.

Eggman cackled gleefully and stopped the walls. "Stand still Sonic," the doctor commanded. Sonic immediately stopped.

"Eggman," Sonic yelled in surprise "What have you..."

"Hop on one leg," Eggman interrupted, watching interestedly to see Sonic do exactly that. "Ho ho ho, this is excellent. I finally have you under my control, you'll do anything asked of you won't you Sonic."

"Yes, I will do anything asked," Sonic found himself saying, despite thinking exactly the opposite. The hedgehog couldn't believe what he was saying. He had no intent on agreeing, but he had just heard and seen himself doing exactly what Eggman wanted.

"And here's the best part, you can't tell anyone to save you," Eggman gloated. As the walls descended, Eggman looked at the hedgehog and moved on to phase two of his plan, "Sonic, here's what you're going to do. You're going to run off, and..."

This was all Sonic needed to hear. Following his command he put on a full burst of speed and ran as far as he could.

"... gather the Chaos... Drat," Eggman cursed, "I really could've phrased that better."

Sonic kept running. He ran for miles, clearing zone after zone. He didn't even know what he was running for, but he knew he couldn't stop. Sure, he could run in any direction he wanted, and anywhere he wanted, and through some effort he even found he could run very slowly, or at least as slow was for himself, but no matter how much he wanted, he couldn't stop.

He eventually found himself at Tails workshop, a small hut by a cliff edge. Unfortunately, Tails was out, testing some sort of plane enhancements, according to a note he had left on the desk. Sonic picked up a pen and paper in his dash, and began writing. The writing came out sloppy, but Sonic had no choice. He scribbled a message on the paper, put it in the most obvious place he could after his fifth lap of the workshop, then left.

The hedgehog darted into an urban area. Maybe he could find someone who could get in touch with Tails. He began looking all around. Unfortunately for him, the person he ran into was Amy.

"Wah," she said as he darted past. "Sonic, stop!" the pink hedgehog yelled.

The hedgehog did. He ground to a halt. Still not out of breath, he stood still for a moment, and turned to look at Amy. The blue hedgehog could only wonder why he stopped, when he realised Amy had yelled it at him. He gulped nervously.

"Sonic," Amy said sweetly, "I don't suppose you'd be willing to go on a date with me tonight would you?"

A wave of panic ran through Sonic's mind. Amy didn't change, no matter how much she said she did. But before he could even find the right way to say no, his mouth had already said yes.

"Really?!" Amy squeed in delight. "I actually have a date with Sonic! Okay, I guess I'd better go shopping first! You can come with me if you like?"
"I'd love to," Sonic heard himself say. Mentally he cursed Eggman. His stupid device was making the blue hedgehog agree to anything asked of him. Sonic's mind was urging him to run the other way, to scream out in panic, to flee, or at least flail for attention so someone, anyone, would notice something was wrong. But instead, he found himself walking slowly, holding hands with Amy Rose as they headed for the nearest set of clothes shops.

The city always seemed tiny to Sonic. He could dash through it, from one edge of the countryside, through the centre, to the other side in just a minute. But today, walking hand in hand with Amy as she insisted on visiting every single shop, even to look at stuff she had no intention of buying, it took them over an hour to get down one road. An hour. One road. To Sonic this was maddening, but all he could do was nod along, and agree that "she did indeed need new shoes".

"Hey Sonic," Amy said almost unbearably happy, "I really like this dress, don't you agree?"

Sonic didn't know anything about clothes, least of all dresses. "I also like this dress," he answered. Inside his own head, he had all but given up, and could just hope that Amy would ask him to leave her alone.

Unfortunately for Sonic, that's exactly what Amy didn't want. "I could just stay with you forever," she said, in-between walks to the shops, "even when we're old and grey, we could spend our days together, forever and ever. I think you would love that wouldn't you.

'Nothing sounds more torturous' thought Sonic, though he said "I would love to grow old and be with you forever and ever."

The shopping went on for nearly five hours. It was only as the shops started to shut that Amy finally relented and the pair got to stop shopping. During this time, Amy had bought several dozen outfits because Sonic said she "looked great in all of them", though Sonic had bought most because, as he agreed "a real gentlemen would pay for a girls shopping." There was similar logic behind Sonic's reason to end up carrying all the bags.

The pair eventually made it to a restaurant, after a brief detour. Thanks to Sonic's reputation, they managed to get into a very elite restaurant, even without a booking. It served the fanciest cuisine, at the highest of prices. Naturally, looking through the menu, Sonic didn't like the sound of any of it. It was all fennel this, or goats cheese that, and watching the waiters come through with the plates; it looked like they were really stingy with the portions, in spite of the ridiculously high cost.

"Wow, this menu looks amazing," Amy said, as she sat opposite Sonic. Sonic's face seemed to tell a different picture. "I bet you'd rather have a chilli dog wouldn't you?" she asked.

"Yes," Sonic replied, for the first time answering what he said with what he was actually thinking.

"I'm sure you could eat something more high class though? Why don't you try the Escargot?"

Sonic once again cursed Eggman. "Sounds good," he said.

As there food arrived, Sonic really cursed Eggman. He also envied Amy, even if she only had a salad. Even the salad looked better than his Escargot, which he had only just learnt meant "Cooked snails." Sonic felt ill as he looked at them, but he had no choice but to consume them once Amy had said, "This looks delicious, we should both tuck in without waiting."

After eating, Sonic accompanied Amy home. He could only guess what she had in mind. The pair stood outside her front door.

"I had a really great time today Sonic," Amy smiled, "You were so agreeable, and everything went exactly how I imagined it would. I hope your night was as wonderful as mine."

Sonic didn't answer. He didn't even realise he didn't answer, he had become so used to being used as a puppet for Amy's date that this was the first question she hadn't prompted out an answer for.

"Sonic," Amy said, slightly upset by the silence, "Tonight was a great night for you wasn't it?"

"Yes," Sonic answered.

"Great," Amy grinned, "But we'll call it a night here. We don't want our relationship moving too fast after all, "Amy replied, in spite of the fact that she'd already made plans for their retirement together.

"So I can go home?" Sonic asked, making himself aware of the fact that he hadn't been commanded to stay any longer.

"Of course," Amy smiled, "But I'll see you tomorrow for another date. You can pick me up here, tomorrow afternoon, say two pm."

"Two pm." Sonic blankly stated. He yet again cursed Eggman, but now found himself cursing Amy as well. Still, with his freedom to run restored, Sonic darted off briskly.

Amy watched him run away, already reliving today's events in her mind. Tonight she would go on to have some amazing dreams, she just knew it.

Sonic ran to Tails' workshop again. This time, Tails was in.

"Sonic," Tails said, "You're back late."

"It's not been a good day."

"Does it have something to do with the note you left?"

Sonic nodded.

"Okay, but why does Eggman having smelly feet mean you're back late?" Tails said puzzled.

"What?"

"That's what you wrote."

"Lemme see that," Sonic said, as he picked up the note he wrote down. It was odd; he could've sworn he wrote "Eggman has used a mind control ray. Can't stop running".

"So what's going on?" Tails asked.

"It starts with Eggman. He flarbled a gononce..." Sonic stopped talking. It was then he remembered what Eggman had said, about not being able to tell anyone about the device.

"Lemme guess," Tails said, trying to suss what Sonic meant, "You can't tell anyone about what happened for some reason."

Sonic shook his head.

"I'm going to take that as a yes. Okay, so what have you been up to all day then?"

Sonic looked at the floor, hesitating, before realising that his decisions were beyond his control. With that justification in mind, Sonic told Tails all about how he'd spent all day doing everything Amy asked him to.

"So," Tails said coming to the natural conclusion, "Eggman's used a device that forces you to do what people request of you."

Sonic shook his head again.

"... only you can't tell anyone." Tails scratched his chin, "Hmm, Sonic, would you mind slapping yourself in the face."

Sonic's hand whacked hard against his own cheek. "Oww, Tails..."

"Sorry," Tails snickered, "but that confirms it. You've become conditioned to take any suggestion given."

"Well that explains why I spent all day with Amy," Sonic replied, "But that doesn't help me, she already made me agree to go on a date with her again tomorrow."

"So don't go. We'll keep you in here all day. You can't go on a date if you can't go anywhere."

"Great," Sonic replied, "I get the choice between being a prisoner, or dating Amy."